President Trump has posted letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies, demanding they drop U.S. drug prices. CNBC's Angelica Peebles joins 'The Exchange' to discuss the move.

Washington

President Trump has contacted 17 pharmaceutical companies, urging them to take voluntary steps to reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The letters ask the companies to align US drug prices with those in other countries within 60 days and outline four specific requests: extending most favored nation (MFN) pricing to Medicaid, guaranteeing MFN pricing for newly launched drugs, returning increased overseas revenues to American patients and taxpayers, and providing for direct purchasing at MFN pricing.

The letters include personal appeals to company leaders, such as addressing Eli Lilly's CEO by his first name. It remains to be seen whether the companies will agree to these requests, and some aspects, like guaranteeing MFN pricing for new drugs, may be challenging to implement due to differences in international drug launch timing.

Trump posts letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies about drug prices

Well, pharma stocks are on the move as well. Our Angelica Peebles has that story. Angelica. Hey, John. Well, President Trump is sending letters to 17 pharmaceutical manufacturers calling on those manufacturers to take voluntary actions within the next 60 days to lower the price of prescription drugs in the U.S. to similar prices around the world. So he's calling for four things. He wants these companies to extend most favored nation pricing to Medicaid. He also wants them to guarantee MFN pricing for newly launched drugs. He also wants them to return increased revenues abroad to American patients and taxpayers and to provide for direct purchasing at MFN pricing. So these, you know, obviously those are four different points. There's some details there. We'll have to see exactly if any of these companies agree to take those actions. And some of them could have varying degrees of impact, right? So guarantee MFN pricing for newly launched drugs. That would be a little bit tricky to actually implement, because typically companies launch their drugs first in the U.S. So how do you compare a price here versus overseas when there is no overseas price? Now, it will be interesting, of course, to see how these companies respond. And as you go through some of the companies that he's making this plea to, we have Lilly, Pfizer, AbbVie. And in these letters, he's actually making a personal appeal to some of these companies. For example, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks. He crossed out Mr. Ricks and wrote David. So you can see that the pressure is increasing, guys. Oh, for sure. All right. Angelica Peebles, thank you.

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